F.Y.I.

AANA announces Monica Lewinsky to speak at RESET conference

AANA has announced Monica Lewinsky is to speak at RESET conference.

The announcement: 

The Australian Association of National Advertisers today announced that Monica Lewinsky will speak at the association’s 2016 ‘RESET’ conference, which will take place on 25 October in Sydney. 

Lewinsky became a household name in 1998, when it was revealed, as part of a federal investigation, that she had been involved in an intimate relationship with then President Bill Clinton. In 2014, following a decade long self-imposed exile from public life, Lewinsky authored an essay, titled Shame and Survival’, for Vanity Fair.  It was the beginning of a process she describes as “taking back my narrative and giving a purpose to my past”. 

Lewinsky is now a passionate anti-bullying ambassador, who has watched with increasing concern what she views as “the perpetuation of shame and humiliation online”.  In October 2014, Lewinsky gave a powerful speech at the Forbes 30 under 30 Summit about the ability of the internet to shred a reputation, from the perspective of being one of the very first to have her reputation so publicly trashed. Her TED talk ‘The Price of Shame’ in 2015 has been viewed over 7.5million times.  Lewinsky’s Sydney address will explore her journey to reclaim and re-shape her identity and the impact the 24-hour news cycle and social media has on anyone trying to build or protect their reputation. Pivotal to her message is the role of compassion in our communications.

“Monica can speak with real authority not only about surviving a media and online maelstrom, but about how to carve out a new purpose, one that draws on but also transcends the original controversy that thrust her into the world’s spotlight.   I heard her speak at Cannes last year and I know that anyone concerned about reputation management in the 24/7 news and social media environments will find her story and perspective moving, highly relevant and compelling.

‘Our RESET agenda is one that seeks to challenge and inspire marketers to think differently about the coming year and in that context we are excited to welcome Monica’s story and message in advocating for a less harmful social media environment. My thanks to Ogilvy Australia for helping bring Monica to our stage,’ Ms Sunita Gloster, the AANA’s CEO said.

Lewinsky is an anti-bullying ambassador for ‘Bystander Revolution’ in the US, a peer-to-peer support network offering practical advice and help to victims, and in the UK, to the Diana Award’s Anti-Bullying Programme, which recognizes young people’s power to change the world and she is supportive of Australia’s Project Rockit.

Two other speakers have been confirmed for the AANA RESET conference: Brad Jakeman, President PepsiCo Global Beverage Group and Sarah Wood, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of global video ad-tech company Unruly.  The AANA will announce another four world- class speakers in the coming weeks.

Tickets for the event are currently only on sale to AANA Members at aana.com.au/reset, but non-members from the media and marketing industry are invited to register their interest via reset@aana.com.au before tickets go on sale to non-members.

MONICA LEWINSKY

Social activist, public speaker and writer

Monica Lewinsky is a social activist in the battle against online harassment — advocating for a safer social media environment. As a public speaker, writer, and contributor to Vanity Fair she addresses such topics as survival, resilience, digital reputation and equality.

Monica’s lens for these societal issues is focused by her myriad unique and profound experiences:  working in government — both in the White House and the Pentagon; the investigation that resulted from her time in Washington, D.C.; involvement in media projects as both producer and subject; as an entrepreneur and designer; and lastly, education. She graduated with a degree in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon) and, living abroad for graduate school, earned a Masters degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In 2014, after a decade long self-imposed retreat from public life, Lewinsky authored an essay, titled “Shame and Survival”, for Vanity Fair in which she overlapped personal experiences and cultural observations regarding the shift towards, what Professor Nicholaus Mills calls, a “Culture of Humiliation”. (June, 2014).  The acclaimed piece, which received over two million unique views online and was nominated for a National Magazine Award, was an entry point for her to begin a process she describes as “taking back my narrative and giving a purpose to my past.”

Lewinsky became known to the public in 1998, when it was revealed as part of a federal investigation that she had had an intimate relationship with then President Bill Clinton.  Overnight, at just 24 years old, she went unwillingly, from being an entirely private individual to a public figure on the global stage. Being at the center of a legal, political and media maelstrom nearly destroyed her; her survival – despite the odds – is a compelling and inspiring story.

The investigation unfolded against a backdrop of a changing media landscape with the advent of both competing 24-hour News Networks and the Internet. With the birth of social media in recent years, Lewinsky saw the increasing proliferation of the perpetuation of shame and humiliation online. As someone who had experienced both, on the widest scale and at a young age, she saw that she could participate in the public discourse about online harassment and work to effect change.   

In October, 2014, Lewinsky gave a speech about the Internet’s reputation shredder at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit where she spoke from the perspective of being Patient Zero – having been the first person to have her reputation completely destroyed online. This well received and widely watched speech launched her present day speaking career.

In March, 2015, she was a speaker at the annual TED Conference, the theme of which was “Truth and Dare”.  Her speech, “The Price of Shame” was viewed over 7.5 million times in the first year since release. She also gave the Ogilvy + Inspire Lecture at the Cannes Lions 2015.

Lewinsky is an Anti-Bullying Ambassador to both Bystander Revolution in the US and The Diana Award in the UK.

On a personal note, Monica is passionate about art – particularly that of contemporary artist Ed Ruscha, game for traveling to new places, loves to sing show tunes, frequents flea markets and doesn’t cook.
She is on both Facebook and Twitter (@MonicaLewinsky).

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